The Anything Box

tightand fuzzy like the hair. It was hard to see how the thing could breathethrough it.
Then the mouth. Padre Manuel felt creepy when he looked at the mouth. Therewas no particular reason why, though. It was just a mouth with the eyeteethlapped sharply over the bottom lip. He'd seen people like that in his time,though maybe not quite so long in the tooth.
Padre Manuel smiled at the creature and almost dodged when it smiled back,because those teeth looked as if they jumped right out at him, white andshiny.
'Buenos dias,' said Padre Manuel.
'Buenos dias,' said the creature, like an echo.
'Hello,' said Padre Manuel, almost exhausting his English.
'Hello,' said the creature, like an echo.
Then the conversation lagged. After a while Padre Manuel said, 'Won't youget out and stay for a while?' He waved his hand and stepped back.
Well, the space man slid his eyelids a couple of times, then the hole gotbigger downwards and he got out and got out and got out.
Padre Manuel backed away pretty fast when all that long longness crawledout of the hole, but he came back wide-eyed when the space creature began topush himself together, shorter and shorter and ended up about a head tallerthan Padre Manuel and about twice as big around. He was almost man-lookingexcept that his hands were round pad things with a row of fingers clear aroundthem that he could put out or pull in when he wanted to. His hide was stretchylooking and beautifully striped, silver and black. All tight together the wayhe was now, it was mostly black with silver flashing when he moved and he hadfunny looking knobs hanging along his ribs, but all in all he wasn't anythingto put fear into anyone.
Padre Manuel wished he could talk with the creature, to make him welcome tothis world, but words seemed to make only echoes. He fingered his breviary,then on impulse, handed it to the creature. The creature turned it over in hissilvery tipped hands. It flared open at one of the well-worn pages and thecreature ran a finger over the print. Then he flipped the book shut. He ranhis finger over the cross on the cover and then he reached over and lifted theheavy crucifix that swung from Padre Manuel's waist. He traced its shape withhis fingertip and then the cross on the book. He smiled at Padre Manuel andgave the book back to him.
Padre Manuel was as pleased as if he'd spoken to him. The creature was a
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noticing thing anyway. He ran his own hand over the book, feeling with a warmglow (which he hoped was not too much of pride) that he had the only breviaryin the whole world that had been handled by someone from another world.
The space creature had reached inside the ship and now he handed PadreManuel a stack of metallic disks, fastened together near the top. Each diskwas covered with raised marks that tried to speak to Padre Manuel's fingertipslike writing for the blind. And some of the disks had raised pictures ofstrange wheels and machinery- looking things.
Padre Manuel found one that looked like the ship. He touched the ship andthen the disk. He smiled at the creature and pushed the plates back togetherand returned them to the creature. He was a noticing thing too.
The space creature ran his fingers lightly down Padre Manuel's face andsmiled. Padre Manuel thought with immense gratification, 'He likes me!'
The creature turned from Padre Manuel, lifted his face, his nose flaring,and waddled on short, heavy legs over to a greasewood bush and took a bite,his two long teeth flashing white in the sun. He chewed—leaves, stems andall—and swallowed. He squatted down and kind of sat without bending, andwaited.
Padre Manuel sat, too. Then the creature unswallowed. Just opened his mouthand out came the bite of greasewood, chewed up and wet. Well, he went fromtree to tree and bush to bush and tried the same thing and unswallowed everymouthful. He even tried a mouthful of Johnson grass, but nothing stayed down.
By this time, Padre Manuel had figured out that the poor creature must behungry. Often on these walks to the pasture, he would take an apple or somecrackers or something else to eat that he could have offered him, but it sohappened that this time he had nothing to offer. He was feeling sorry when thecreature shrugged himself so the knobs on his ribs waggled, and turned back tothe ship, scratching as though the knobs itched him. He crawled back into theship.
Padre Manuel went over cautiously, and almost got a look inside, but thecreature's face, teeth and all, pushed out of the hole right at him. PadreManuel backed away and the creature climbed out with a big box thing under hisarm. He scoonched himself all up together again and put the box down. Hemotioned Padre Manuel to come closer and pointed at one side of the box andsaid something that ended questiony. Padre Manuel looked at the box. There wasa hole in the top and some glittery stuff on the side of it just above a bigslot and the glittery stuff was broken. Only a few little pieces were hangingby reddish wire things.
'What is it for?' he asked, making his voice as questiony as he could.
The creature looked at him and slid his eyelids a couple of times, then hepicked up a branch of greasewood and pushed it in the top of the box. Then hewaggled one hand in the slot and stuck a few of his fingers in his mouth.Padre Manuel considered for a moment. It must be that the box was some kind of food-making thing that had broken. That was why the poor creature was actingso hungry. Que lбstima!
'I'll get you something to eat, my son,' said Padre Manuel. 'You waithere.' And he hurried away, cutting across the corner of the alfalfa field inhis hurry, his cassock whispering through the purply blue flowers.
He was afraid someone might start asking questions and he wasn't one totalk much about what he was doing until it was done, but Sor Concepciуn andSor Esperanza had taken the old buckboard and driven over to Gastelum's to seeif Chenchita would like to take a job at the Dude Ranch during the vacationthat had just begun. She had graduated from the tiny school at the mission andsomething had to be found to occupy the time she was all too willing to devoteto the boys. Padre Manuel sighed and laid the note aside. God be thanked thatthis offer of a job had come just now. The Gastelums could use the money andChenchita would have a chance to see that there was something more in theworld than boys.
Padre Manuel raided the kitchen and filled a box with all kinds of thingsand went back out to the pasture.
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Well, the creature tried everything. Most of it he un-swallowed almost assoon as it went down. Padre Manuel thought they had it for sure when he triedthe pork roast, but just as they were heaving a sigh of relief, up it came—allthat beautiful roast, mustard and all. The creature must have been prettyupset, because he grabbed Padre Manuel and shook him, yelling something athim. Padre Manuel recoiled, but his hand went to the band of tight fingersthat circled his arm. He laid his hand upon the cool smoothness of thefingers.
'My child!' he rebuked. 'My son!' He looked up into the blazing silverygray of the eyes above him. In the tight silence that followed, Padre Manuelrealized, with a pleasurable pang, that he had touched a creature from anotherworld.
The creature stepped back and looked at Padre Manuel. Then he picked up apinch of dirt and sprinkled it on his head and smiled.
Padre Manuel bowed gravely. Then he, too, smiled.
It was almost dark before Padre Manuel gave up going around the pasturewith the creature, trying to find something he could stomach. He was carefulto avoid the tree where the dove's nest was. Surely if the creature couldn'teat the egg from the kitchen, he wouldn't be able to eat a dove's egg. Hesighed and started home.
Gonzales' bull was stretching his neck through the barb-wire fence, tryingto reach the lush green alfalfa just beyond his tongue's reach. 'You tellNacio to plant his own alfalfa,' said Padre Manuel. 'And don't break the fencedown again. To die of bloat is unpleasant and besides, there is a hungry thingin the pasture tonight.'
He glanced back across the field. The trees hid the ship from here. Good.It was pleasant to have a little secret for a while. Then he began to worryabout the creature. This matter was too big to keep to himself too long. Itmight be very important to others. Maybe the sheriff should be told. Maybeeven the government. And the scientists. They would go mad over a ship and acreature from another world. There was Professor Whiting at the